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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

I write zombie stories...and damn good ones!

The new DEAD is coming soon!

Before we take a stroll and I share some stuff about zombie fiction, let me welcome you to October. In this house, that is like Christmas, and that is why I am giving away AT LEAST one audio book a day. So pay attention to my author page on Wastebook and watch to win. To thank you for actually clicking on my blog, I am giving away a bonus title today to start...so, leave a remark or email me (at twbrown.maydecpub@gmail.com) telling me which of my titles would start your Halloween month of perfectly and be watching your in box! Also, the first person to give feedback on the new DEAD cover for DEAD: Reclamation (see above) wins a gifted copy of ANY of my titles! And yes, you can win as many times as you like this month. No limits.

I write zombie stories.
WAIT! From some of you, I can already hear the collective groans. Zombies? Hasn’t that been done to death?
(Pardon the pun.) Actually, I agree with you in a way. It seems you can’t drop
in to a writer’s group without seeing a dozen zombie books being pedaled. So
what could I possibly have to say that might interest you? Well, if you like a
good bit of controversy, stick around, because I am going to tell you what is
wrong with the zombie-writing masses, and why MY books stand out from them.
Along the way, I will give you some others who have been getting it right, but
I am really serious when I say I will step on some toes. Hopefully, when you
finish reading this, you might give a zombie book a try. If it is mine, great,
and if it is one of the few I mention, that is good too.

I’ve been in love with
the zombie genre for decades. I saw the original Dawn of the Dead in the theater…and that was it for me. Ever since
then, they have been my guilty pleasure. However, it wasn’t anything I ever set
out to write. Actually, Dakota (originally listed as by
Todd Brown, but it has the TW Brown updated byline) is the first novel I wrote. The first whack I took at zombies came
after reading Monster Island by DavidWellington. It was then that I was enrolled in a college Creative Writing
class. I figured it would be fun, and so I penned my first piece as an
assignment. The instructor pulled me up after the next class and raved. She
told me it was obvious that I loved the subject and that I should write
something longer.

I am one of those
people who has to study things and do lots of research. So…I started reading
all the zombie fiction I could. However, there wasn’t much. This was just
before the indie/self-published highway exploded into the massive beast it is
today. I found a few good titles: (The afore-mentioned) Monster Island, The Rising,
Dying to Live, Day by Day Armageddon, and of course…World War Z. Unfortunately, I also found
some really awful stuff out there. Names aren’t important, that isn’t what this
is about. However, I will give you a few things to look for when shopping the
market that are dead giveaways in just a bit.

Ahh...those first original covers...

When I set down to
write my series, DEAD (The Ugly Beginning,Revelations,Fortunes &Failures, Winter, Siege & Survival, Confrontation, Reborn, Darkness Before Dawn, Spring and the soon-to-be released Reclamation),
I wanted to make it about the characters…NOT the zombies. Sure, there is death
and destruction…all the stuff zombie fans like. However, I decided to go the
way of one of my all-time favorite novels, The
Stand, and bring in a large cast of characters. Then, using a format
inspired loosely by George R. R. Martin’s Game
of Thrones, I rotated the chapters through various perspectives. I created
heroes and villains of all shapes, sizes, ages, and sexes.

As the story unfolded,
I refused to write an outline in order to prevent becoming linear. I soon found
pages going by with little or no mention of the undead. Over time, I created
people that fans of the series have built bonds with, learned to love, and in
some cases…hate.

I didn’t reinvent the
wheel...or the zombie. But having sold a few thousand copies, I feel I have
created something that resonates with not only the zombie fans, but with those
outside the genre as well. So what is the big secret? I read what is out there.
After a while, a lot of it began to squish together in a mass of pulp not
worthy of recycling. It was the same story over and over with cardboard cutouts
of generic characters who I cared little or nothing for. It was violence and
gore for violence and gore’s sake. I could predict who would live or die within
a page or two. Most were simply regurgitating the Romero premise: band of
“good” guys hole up and create bastion, gang of “bad” guys come and spoil it
and (most) everybody dies in a big (anti) climactic battle in the end.

So here is my first
tip: Read the negative reviews first. Do they all mention the same things? Bad grammar, poor editing…etc? There is a
disturbing trend in the indie scene of core groups basically spamming Amazon
with Five-star reviews for each other. So look around and note the names
writing the glowing reviews that completely contradict the one- and two-star
reviews. This may seem odd, but even my own negative reviews are helpful if you
are considering one of my titles. One person said I spent too much time on
description, too many characters, too much detail…not enough gore. I am okay
with that. That coincides with the positive ones that enjoyed my character-rich
stories, my descriptive voice, and my detail. Not all negative reviews are BAD
reviews.

That brings me to my
second tip: If the writer receives a bad review and has to roam the social
media for people to rub their bruised ego and talk about how “ignorant and
hateful” the negative reviewer is…run! Negative reviews happen. They hurt me no
less than any other writer, but I NEVER respond to a negative review with a
defense, nor do I ask others to refute the bad review in order to make me feel
better about myself as a writer.

I want to take few
minutes to talk about what makes my stuff stand out from the rest. (Not just
mine, but also books like The Walking
Dead, Breathers, The Loving Dead, and The Zombies of Lake Woebegotten.)
Characters. It is really that simple. While each of these tales feature zombies, they are much more than simply “zombie” books. They are STORIES. There
is a difference. I could do an entire column about the poor editing, bad
formatting, and all the rest. However, a good story can still overcome that if
it has characters you care about. The best example I have of that is Eden. Some reviews blasted the lack of
editing (I have been told it has been redone, but can’t say for sure) but they
missed the wonderful work the writer did creating characters that had depth.

When I write, I try to
get into the mind of the character I am writing to the point where it has been
known to affect my actual mood. I have music for specific moods that I play
while writing certain things and could do a column on that too, but I don’t
really think it would be all that exciting. Mostly because what works for me
likely won’t work for others…some, but that would narrow the audience.

It all started here.

So here is my challenge
to those of you who might’ve turned your nose up at my opening line…if you like
a good story, it doesn’t matter if it is zombies or zeppelins; broaden your
horizon. At least say you tried it and THEN hated it. Heck, email me and I will
gift you a Dead: The
Ugly Beginning or Zomblog for free. I am banking on you becoming invested in the CHARACTERS that you will
want to read the rest of the series. But if not…that is okay, too.

4 comments:

DEAD: Reclamation's cover is actually kinda spooky. Especially when you wake up ass crack early and randomly open this blog on your cell. Did you know it full screens that picture if you accidently click on it? I do now. And I am very awake!

I have a question or two first. Is that a scene from DEAD: Reclamation? Did you know that it kinda looks like a scene from the new Scyfy series called Z-Nation? Don't change it! I dig it, just letting you know. The scene has these zombies going to the top of an oil refinery because of a noise and falling into the gas pit tank thing. Very...odd. (The 'Here baby, baby, baby...' trailer got me. Had to see this show to see that scene.) Cheers!

Yes, it is a scene from DEAD: Reclamation. And funny you should mention Z-Nation. My daughter has boycotted it because she thinks they stole some of my ideas. I haven't watched it because it looks like a SyFy movie of the week in TV series form.

About Me

TW Brown is the author of the Zomblog series, DEAD series, and That Ghoul Ava series. He is deeply immersed in
pursuing his dream of being a “full-time” writer while trying to balance the
duties of husband, father, friend, and Border Collie owner. He keeps busy
reading and editing the numerous submissions for a variety of upcoming
anthologies and full-length titles for May December Publications. He has had short stories published by Pill
Hill Press, Living Dead Press, and others.